Smashing Pumpkins

Love him or hate him, Billy Corgan, founder and sole remaining original member of the legendary alt-rock band The Smashing Pumpkins, just keeps going and going. By my count, Corgan has broken up his own band at least three times, and each time has proclaimed that he would never return to the Pumpkins moniker again.

And yet here we are, some 22 years since The Smashing Pumpkins first entered the Nirvana-fueled alternative scene in 1988 and Corgan's dour personality and songwriting skills remain intact.

Searching for the fountain of youth with a quartet of young players, Corgan is touring in support of a massive project entitled Teargarden by Kaleidoscope, a 44-song "album" that will be released a single at a time. Always ahead of game as far as marketing goes, Corgan has claimed that the entire concept of the album is dead—and, well, he may well be right. Either way, the first track from Teargarden, "A Song for a Son," wouldn't sound out of place if it were from Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, the 1995 release that made The Smashing Pumpkins a household name.